THE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL
The Lamaist Church has, in addition to the monthly festivals, four great
annual ceremonies, and the greatest is the New Year feast, the Losar,
which is celebrated in remembrance of the Sakya-muni, Buddha's victory
over the six heresies, the victory of the true religion over infidelity.
It is always held at the beginning of February, and is therefore a
festival of spring and light, in which the children of Buddha welcome
the victory of the lengthening days over the darkness of winter, the
passing away of the cold weather, the awakening of life and of the
sprouting seeds after the winter sleep, and the approach of spring, when
mild breezes, heralds of a warmer, brighter season, play with the
streamers on all the temple roofs. The Losar is therefore an
extraordinarily popular feast, which for quite fifteen days draws the
labourer from his work, the herdsman from his yaks, and the merchant
from his counter; a season of joy and pleasure, of feasting and dancing;
a time for paying and receiving visits, and of giving and receiving
presents; when the houses and temples are swept and garnished, and the
best clothes and ornaments are taken out of the trunks; when friends
gather to drink together in their apartments, and then in humble
meditation squash their noses against the floor before the images in the
dark temple halls; when broad anecdotes and strange stories of robbers
are related to visitors from a distance, frequently interrupted by the
hum of the prayer mills and the eternal truth "Om mani padme hum."
All are admitted to the great temple festivals: no distinction is made
between clergy and laity, monks and nomads, rich and poor, men and
women, greybeards and children. A begging woman clothed in rags is seen
beside a duchess loaded with precious stones. The Losar is a feast of
the whole people, a carnival of Lamaism, like the Lupercalia and
Saturnalia in ancient Rome.
It was my good fortune to arrive just in time for the greatest annual
festival of Lamaism, and to be present at its celebration in the
monastery town of Tashi-lunpo. At half-past ten appeared Tsaktserkan, a
young chamberlain from the vatican, in a very elegant yellow robe of
silk and a hat like an upturned dish, with a hanging tassel, and
announced that he had come from His Holiness to fetch me to the
festival, and that he was commissioned by the lama Lobsang Tsering to
attend on me during my sojourn in Shigatse. He requested me to put on
the finest clothes I had with me, for I should sit where I could be seen
during the whole time from the seat of the Grand Lama. At the bottom of
my box I had an old dress coat, several dress shirts, and patent leather
shoes, which I had brought especially for the benefit of the Tashi Lama,
and when Robert had rummaged out my shaving implements from another box,
I assumed the appearance of a European gentleman among the bare
mountains of Tibet. But I could not compare in gorgeousness with my
interpreter Muhamed Isa, for his gold-embroidered turban surpassed
everything. Of the rest only Robert, Tsering, Rabsang, and Namgyal were
allowed to accompany me.
We mount the new horses from the Ngangtse-tso and ride to the monastery,
a distance of twelve minutes. We leave on the right the Shigatse-dzong,
which stands picturesquely on its hill in the sunshine, and reminds me
of the palace at Leh. Our way passes across an open place, by detached
houses and courtyards, fields, pools, and ditches; the crowd increases,
the road becomes narrower; people stream in dense masses to the
monastery--townsmen and nomads, pilgrims from distant lands and dirty
ragged beggars; and old women sit at every corner offering with loud
voice sweetmeats and cakes for sale. Boys, dogs, and Chinamen are all
mingled together as in a huge ant-heap. But Tsaktserkan and his
marshals open a way for us and we ride up the lane, beside which rows of
great upright prayer mills are enclosed in white-washed masonry. A
little higher the way becomes a proper street with tall white houses
containing the cells of the monks, and we dismount at one of the chief
entrances, a large gateway. High above us rises a brick-red temple
building, the Tsogla-kang, and above all shines the white façade of the
Labrang with a black frieze on the top and with awnings before its
windows. We admire the imposing singular architecture, visible in all
its lines and details and making an impression of uniformity and
solidity. It is, perhaps, owing to my affection for Tibet that
everything in this wonderful land is bewitching and magnificent in my
eyes.
Now we mount up to the holy dwellings; the steep, corridor-like passages
between the mysterious walls are paved with flagstones, varying in form
and dimensions, but all smooth and bright as metal, though very uneven
and worn, for they have been trodden for centuries by the feet of
innumerable pilgrims and the soles of hurrying monks. Sometimes the
crowding in this tightly packed stream of pilgrims is very
uncomfortable, and in the lanes there is a musty odour of human beings.
We mount higher and higher, go along winding passages, turn frequently
at right angles left or right, pass through a gateway roofed over and
with a massive threshold, and follow passages and corridors, dimly
lighted, dark or pitch-dark, crowded with lamas in red togas, who have
one or both arms bare, closely cropped hair, and no covering on their
heads. They welcome us with kindly good-tempered smiles, and then move
aside to let us pass. Where treacherous steps lurk in the darkness, I
feel a strong arm ready to support me in case I stumble; it is some
attentive lama at my elbow.
Now it becomes lighter in the monastery walks, and the profiles of the
monks stand out black against the light. We enter a gallery with massive
wooden pillars, and we take our places in a balcony shut off from the
gallery by curtains of yak's wool with horizontal white stripes at the
bottom. An arm-chair of European form was placed for me, and I needed
it; for this day's spectacle, the grandest of the whole New Year
festival, lasted three hours. Here we sat as on the second tier of an
open-air theatre, and had an excellent view of the scene of action, like
a rectangular market-place, and surrounded by open platforms or terraces
supported by colonnades of wooden pillars. The whole reminded me of a
vast roofless auditorium. In the centre of the paved court rose a tall
mast which had suffered severely from the wind, and had been fissured by
many summers and the frosts of the succeeding winters, and from its top
long flags hung down to the ground. Immediately below our balcony ran
the uppermost terrace, and beyond its edge we looked down over the whole
courtyard where the religious ceremony was to take place, and over the
galleries opposite and at the sides, one storey above the court below
(Illustration 108).
[Illustration: 111, 112. THE _PROFANUM VULGUS_ AT THE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL
IN SHIGATSE.]
Everywhere, on all the balconies and roofs, on all the projections and
terraces, even right up under the gilded roofs curved in the Chinese
style of the mortuary chapels, where departed Grand Lamas sleep, the
people swarmed. From our elevated point of vantage we looked down on a
sea of heads, a conglomeration of human beings, a mosaic of vivid
glaring colours, an exhibition of national costumes, among which the
Tibetan dress was certainly the most conspicuous, but where the eye
lighted on figures hailing from Bhotan and Sikkim, Nepal and Ladak,
while Chinese merchants, or soldiers and pilgrims from the grassy
steppes of Mongolia, were easily distinguishable. An old lama of high
rank, who had shown us to our places, informed us that there were more
than 6000 spectators present, and this estimate was below rather than in
excess of the truth. Right in front of the highest platform opposite us
sits the Consul of Nepal, a young lieutenant in a round black cap with a
gold band but no peak. He blows rings from his cigarette, and is the
only one guilty of such a desecration of the holy place. Behind him sit
a number of other Nepalese and representatives of other Himalayan
countries attracted hither by business affairs or religious zeal. To the
left of them are long rows of men in dresses entirely of red or of
yellow, long kaftans with coloured girdles and sashes round the
waist, and mushroom-shaped hats, also red or yellow, which have the
circumference of a parasol and are fastened with a string under the
chin; they are officials of different ranks, are either the city
fathers, or are attached to the civil court of the Lama, or to the
administrative bodies of the province Chang. On the gallery below them
sit their wives and other ladies of rank, quite buried under the most
varied and extraordinary adornments: their dresses are red, green, and
yellow; they wear necklaces and silver pendants, silver cases inlaid
with turquoise, and at the back of the neck tall white aureoles, thickly
set with jewels and other ornaments. Their coiffures are of various
forms: some have a parting in the middle, and hair, like polished ebony,
puffed up at the sides; others have the hair plaited in a number of thin
switches, which are fixed up and decorated with beads, etc. There are
seated women from Pari and Kamba-dzong, from Ngari-khorsum in the west
and Kham in the east, and from the black tents on the shores of
Tengri-nor. They remind me of Leksand, Mora, and Vingåker, for there is
life and colour in these female groups. Beauty, according to European
ideas, will be sought in vain, but many seem agreeable and merry; they
are healthy, strongly and symmetrically built, and evidently are much
pleased with their pretty dresses. But if their relationship to the
Venus de Milo is very remote, they are at any rate women; they talk and
chatter, nibble dried peaches and sweets, blow their noses with their
fingers, and throw glances at their neighbours which betray their firm
conviction that they have outstripped their sisters in the elegance of
their attire. How very different these ladies are to the women we have
seen in Chang-tang! They do not, indeed, wash themselves every day, but
to-day they have washed their faces for the festival, and one is
astonished to see so many fair complexions--quite as fair as with us,
with scarcely a tinge of yellow, and often with a colour on the cheeks
as fresh as an apple.
On the platform under our balcony there are no dignitaries: there the
people sit sociably together, there the _profanum vulgus_ has its place;
there sit country mothers hushing their crying children, and there stand
ragged beggars leaning on their sticks, or sit on the ground with their
backs against the wall, while they hum their usual begging songs, which
are lost in the confusion of voices. Many have brought small cushions,
or folded clothes to make a comfortable seat. In some groups tea is
drunk out of wooden cups, in others acquaintances meet and lay their
heads alternately in one another's laps. Fresh spectators are constantly
coming on to the platforms, and the crush becomes dreadful. The railing
is low, so as not to hide the view of the scene below. The last-comers
have to look for a place against the house wall, and stand that they may
see over the heads of those seated before them. Some places right up
under the roofs seem rather dangerous, but the people behave well and
with great self-control; there is no jostling, no fighting for places,
no one falls over the low balustrades, but the greatest harmony and the
most perfect order prevail everywhere (Illustrations 111, 112).
The weather was all that could be desired for an _al fresco_ festival.
What an unpleasant odour must rise from the crowds of human beings when
it rains during a festival in late summer! Towards the end a slight wind
arose, causing the flags which hung down from the galleries to unfold
and blow out. To-day every one was in a holiday mood, and little
attention was paid to us, though we sat in the full sunlight in a
position where we could be seen from all sides. Occasionally some one
turned towards us and made a remark which caused merriment among the
others.
[Illustration: 113. LAMA WITH SHELL-TRUMPET.]
[Illustration: 114. LAMA WITH FLUTE USED IN RELIGIOUS SERVICES.
Sketches by the Author.]
As in the two preceding years the New Year festival of 1907 was of a
more solemn character than usual, and had attracted larger bands of
pilgrims, for the Dalai Lama had taken flight when the English advanced
to Lhasa, and this cowardly pope dwelt, misunderstood and despised, in
Urga in Mongolia, after abandoning his country, where all was in
confusion, to the mercy of the invaders. Many a pilgrim, who would
otherwise have gone to Lhasa, now resorted to Tashi-lunpo in preference,
where the Panchen Rinpoche, the Pope of Chang, had stuck to his post
when the country was in danger. The Chinese had posted up a long
proclamation at all the street-corners in Lhasa, in which they
declared that the Dalai Lama was deposed because he had exposed his
people to danger instead of defending them, and appointed the Tashi Lama
in his place as the highest administrator of the home affairs of Tibet.
True, the mob had torn down this proclamation and trampled it in the
dust, and the Tashi Lama had refused his acquiescence, but nevertheless
it was still apparent, two and a half years later, that the Tashi Lama
enjoyed a far higher reputation than the Dalai Lama. For though the
Dalai Lama was supposed to be omnipotent, all-seeing, and omniscient,
his troops had been defeated by infidel strangers; although he had
promised his warriors invulnerability, they had been shot down like
pheasants by the English machine guns; although he had solemnly sworn
that no harm could befall Lhasa, the abode of the gods, the enemy had
occupied the town, while the invincible one, the almighty, the
incarnation of the deity, had taken to headlong flight like the most
cowardly of marauders, more cowardly and meaner than the worst mercenary
from Kham. The Tibetans may be forgiven for beginning to doubt the
infallibility of the Dalai Lama after the butchery at Guru and Tuna,
though the priests were ready with plausible explanations of these
events.
The Tashi Lama, on the other hand, had stuck to his post, and was the
object of the reverence and respect traditionally paid to the chief
priests in Tashi-lunpo. He was the highest prelate in Tibet, while the
Pope of Lhasa was wandering a homeless fugitive about Mongolia. At the
New Year festival of 1907 it was easy to perceive what great prestige
and what boundless confidence were attached to the person of the Tashi
Lama. The crowds in festive robes who thronged the platforms and
balconies were soon to behold with their own eyes the holiest of the
holy in Tibet. And the nearer the time approached, the greater became
the excitement and expectation. They had been sitting here for hours,
for weeks and months they had toiled through desolate mountains, and
now----
Suddenly from the uppermost platforms on the roofs ring out deep,
long-drawn-out blasts of horns over the country; a couple of monks show
themselves against the sky; they blow on singular sea-shells, producing
a penetrating sound, which is echoed back in shrill and yet heavy tones
from the fissured rocks behind the convent; they summon the _Gelugpa_,
the brotherhood of yellow monks, to the festival. The venerable lamas
whose duty it is to attend on me, explain everything to me, but I do not
find it easy to follow them, especially as their words are translated to
me by a Mohammedan. They say that this first blast gives notice that the
monks are drinking tea together. Then a shout of joy bursts forth from
the lips of all the assembled multitude, for now the ceremonies begin.
On the right hand, on the other side of the court, a gallery is placed
obliquely resting on five pillars, and from it a stone staircase of
eleven steps leads down to the court. The gallery is now concealed by
heavy black curtains characteristic of all lama monasteries. Invisible
choristers, among whom we seem to distinguish voices of men and youths,
now intone a mystic chant. It is subdued, deep, and slow; it quavers in
religious enthusiasm beneath the dark vaults of the gallery, and seems
to proclaim with full conviction:
"In every land the whole world round
This song of praise shall soon resound."
The murmuring voices are silent and the chant swells up crescendo and
then falls again, and seems to die out in some distant under-world, as
though the singers had reached the portals of Nirvana. Enthralling,
mystical, full of yearning and hope is this wonderful Losar hymn in
Tashi-lunpo. Nothing of the kind I have heard, neither the chanting in
the Isaac Cathedral in St. Petersburg, nor in the Uspenski Sobor, the
cathedral of Moscow, has made a deeper impression on me; for this chant
is grand and powerful, and yet at the same time soothing as a cradle
song, intoxicating as wine, and sedative as morphia. I listen to it with
a solemn feeling, and miss it when the murmur of voices begins again,
drowning the final notes.
[Illustration: 115, 116, 117. LAMAS IN DANCING MASKS.
Sketches by the Author.]
Above this gallery is a second, which is open to the Dojas-chimbo, as
the court is called. Only the middle is covered with a curtain of
yellow silk with red stripes, and with heavy gold fringes and tassels at
the bottom. Behind this curtain the pope takes his place; he is so holy
that his whole person may not be exposed to the gaze of the multitude,
but a small rectangular opening is made in the curtain that he may be
able to watch the proceedings. After an interval, long copper trumpets
give forth a new signal; the holy one has left the Labrang, and is on
his way to the performance. A procession of high lamas enters the
gallery, each bearing some of the robes and pontifical insignia of the
Tashi Lama. A low, reverential, and subdued murmur is heard, the
multitude rises, on the tip-toe of expectation, all is still as the
grave, and all eyes are turned towards the door of the gallery through
which the procession enters. He comes, he comes! Then there is a murmur
more reverential than before among the crowd, who all rise and remain
standing, with their bodies bent and their hands on their knees,
inspired with deep devotion at the approach of the Panchen Rinpoche. He
walks slowly to his place, sits down with crossed legs on a couple of
cushions, and then only his face can be seen through the opening in the
silken curtain. Apparently he is rather a young man; on his head he
wears a large yellow mitre, which, however, resembles a Roman helmet or
a French infantry helmet; his pontifical robe is of yellow silk, and in
his hand he holds a rosary. At his right hand sits his younger brother,
Kung Gushuk, the Duke, our host, in a dress of red and yellow, and at
the right hand of the latter we see three other secular lords in yellow.
To the left of the Tashi Lama sits the minister of state, Lobsang Tsundo
Gyamtso, a little fat cardinal with a head like a billiard ball, and
beside him the tutor of the Tashi Lama, Yonsin Rinpoche, and his deaf
and dumb mother Tashi Lamo, a little woman with a shaven head and a red
and yellow dress embroidered with gold--I should have taken her for a
man if I had not been told who she was. In the semi-darkness behind them
is a row of high lamas, all in yellow garments--their ordinary dress is
red. It is truly an imposing scene. We seem to have before us the whole
conclave of venerable cardinals of Buddhistic catholicism. And this
impression is not weakened by the way in which they move and speak. One
can imagine how softly they speak to one another in the presence of His
Holiness; their movements are dignified and formal, slowly and
gracefully they assume the sitting posture of Buddha; their gestures are
noble; when they converse, bending slowly towards one another, an air of
genuine striking nobility pervades the whole picture without the
slightest touch of anything that can be called vulgar.
The crowd has seated itself again, but frequently pilgrims from
far-distant lands stand up embued with religious awe, bow, fall on their
knees, press their foreheads against the ground, and pay homage to the
Grand Lama as to a god. My eyes frequently meet his; apparently he is
extremely interested in his guests. Before the commencement of the
spectacle he had sent a lama to my garden to present me with a large
_kadakh_, a long narrow piece of fine white silk, as a greeting of
welcome and a polite token of esteem. Now several monks came gently
behind my chair; a table, or more correctly a stool, was set down, and a
whole collection of brass bowls were placed on it, filled to overflowing
with the finest mandarin oranges from Sikkim, dried fruits from Nepal,
raisins from India, figs from Si-ning-fu, sweetmeats from Bhotan, dried
peaches from Baltistan, and Tibetan cakes. And tea-cups of Chinese
porcelain were filled again and again with thick buttered tea. They
said: "The Panchen Rinpoche begs you to partake of these." I immediately
caught his eye, rose and bowed, and he nodded to me with a friendly
smile. All the refreshments left over--and the quantity was not
small--were given to my companions.
[Illustration: 118. VIEW OF TASHI-LUNPO.
Sketch by the Author.]
Now the religious ceremonies begin. The Tashi Lama takes off his mitre
and hands it to an acolyte. All the secular lords on the open platforms
also take off their mushroom-shaped hats. Two dancers with gruesome
masks, in coloured silken dresses with wide open sleeves, come forth
from the lower gallery, the curtain being drawn aside, and revolve in a
slow dance over the quadrangle. Then the Grand Lama is saluted by the
eleven principal standards in Tashi-lunpo; every idol has its standard,
and every standard therefore represents a god of the copious
Lamaistic mythology, but only the standards of the eleven chief deities
are brought out. The flag is square, but strips or ribands of a
different colour protrude at right angles from the three free edges;
there are white flags with blue strips, blue flags with red ribands, red
with blue, yellow with red strips, etc. The flag is affixed in the usual
way to a long painted staff, round which it is wrapped when a lama
brings it out. He marches solemnly up, halts before the box of the Tashi
Lama, holds out the staff horizontally with the assistance of a second
lama, and unrolls the flag, and then the emblem of the god is raised
with a forked stick to salute the Grand Lama. It is then lowered again,
the flag is rolled up, and the staff is carried sloped on the shoulder
of the bearer out through a gate beneath our balcony. The same ceremony
is observed with all the standards, and as each is unfolded a subdued
murmur of devotion rises from the assembly.
After a short pause the trumpets sound again, and now appear some lamas
with white masks and white robes, heralding a procession of monks, each
of whom carries some article used in the ritual of Buddhism, holy temple
vessels, golden bowls and chalices, censers of gold swinging in their
chains and emitting clouds of sweet-smelling incense. Some of these
monks appear in harness and accoutrements; three masked lamas almost
collapse under the weight of their exceedingly costly vestments of red,
blue, and yellow gold-embroidered silk. Behind them six copper trumpets,
10 feet long and bound with brass, are carried, and are so heavy that
their sound-bells must be supported on the shoulders of young novices.
They are followed by a group of flutists, and then come forty men in
fanciful motley costly dresses, who bear drums held up vertically on
carved poles, and beat them with drumsticks resembling a swan's neck.
Now come the cymbals clashing loudly and in regular time in the hands of
monks clothed in red silk. Nakchen, "The Great Black Man," is the name
of a dressed-up monk who bears a hand-bell. Below, at the stone steps,
the court is spread with a square of carpets. There the orchestra seats
itself, the forty drums are held up parallel to one another, and
likewise the trumpets, which are now allowed to slope down to the
pavement. All the musicians wear yellow mitres somewhat like the mitre
of the Grand Lama. Three monks of high rank come out on the gallery,
which is situated on the short side of the quadrangle immediately above
the arena. They wear yellow vestments and yellow mitres, and ring from
time to time brazen bells which they hold in their hands. Each of them,
I am told, is the superior of a thousand monks; only three are present,
for the fourth is ill. Tashi-lunpo has 3800 monks at the present time.
[Illustration: 119. STREET IN TASHI-LUNPO, WITH LAMAS.]
The curtain at the top of the stone staircase is opened and a masked
figure, named Argham, comes out with a bowl full of goat's blood in his
hand. He holds it horizontally with outstretched arms while he executes
a mystic dance; suddenly he pours the blood over the steps. With both
arms extended, holding the bowl upside down, he continues his dance,
while some serving brothers hurry up to wipe up the blood. Undoubtedly
this ceremony is a relic of the time when the original Bon religion
prevailed in Tibet, before the Indian monk Padma Sambhava in the eighth
century A.D. laid the foundation stone of Lamaism by introducing
Buddhism into Tibet; for Lamaism is only a corrupt form of pure
Buddhism, and under an outward varnish of Buddhistic symbolism has
incorporated a number of Sivaistic elements, and has also retained the
superstitions which in pre-Buddhistic times found expression in wild
fanatical devil dances, rites, and sacrifices. The object of these
ceremonies was to exorcise, banish or propitiate the powerful demons
which reign everywhere, in the air, on the earth, and in water, and
whose only function is to plague, torture, and persecute the children of
men. At that time the god of war and the demons were appeased by human
sacrifices, and the ceremony I have just described is certainly a relic
of these offerings. Of course Buddhism had a better prospect of becoming
popular in Tibet if as much as possible of the old religion were
incorporated in the new. But the first command of the fundamental law of
Buddhism forbids to "quench the vital spark," to kill. This does not,
however, prevent the monks from eating meat or making use of goat's
blood in certain religious rites--the sheep and goats are killed by
ordinary butchers, while the lamas themselves do not transgress the
commandments of the law.
Bagcham is the name of a dancer in a frightful devil's mask; as he
circles over the quadrangle, pieces of coloured cloth flutter about on
all sides. He is followed by eleven masked lamas who execute the same
movements. They are joined by a troop of new performers in coloured
garments with necklaces, beads, and ornaments. They wear a square collar
with a round hole in the middle, which is passed over the head, so that
the collar rests on the shoulders and stands out horizontally when they
dance. A great number of strips tied about the body swing out like the
skirts of a ballet-dancer when the dancers spin round. They hold in
their hands various religious objects and long light strips, ribands,
and streamers.
Again the curtain parts asunder, and preceded by two flutists Chöjal Yum
appears at the top of the steps, the impersonation of a female spirit,
and with a trident in his hand performs a dance on the topmost step.
Lastly, lamas dance in hideous masks with large evil eyes and
Mephistophelian eyebrows, distorted features, and huge tusks; others
represent mythical wild beasts, all equally terrible (Illustrations 115,
116, 117). At every new number the three high priests ring their bells,
and the music continues without interruption, the discordant noise
awakening a thundering echo from the stone façades of the narrow court.
The drummers beat their instruments slowly and in strict time,
accompanied by the clash of the cymbals, the weird, prolonged blasts of
the trumpets, and the more agreeable notes of the flutes. But now and
then the time is accelerated, the beats of the drum follow one another
more and more closely, and the claps of the clashing basins pass into
one continuous resonance. The musicians seem to stimulate one another,
and there is a great crescendo; there is more than enough noise to
deafen one, so it is useless to attempt to speak to one's neighbour. The
dancing becomes more furious, and undoubtedly the fanatical spectacle
makes a deep impression on the spectators. Now and then a fanatic is
overpowered by it, jumps up, and, turning towards the Tashi Lama, grabs
at his head with his hands, falls forward with his hands and forehead on
the ground, and repeats this obeisance thrice--he has a deified man
before him. A greybeard from Chang-tang, sitting in his fur coat just
below our balcony, is unwearied in these observances, and is constantly
jumping up to make his reverence to the Grand Lama; but once he slips on
a piece of mandarin peel and makes a frightful contortion, to the great
amusement of his neighbours. Other pilgrims take from their girdles a
small bag of rice or barley, and throw a pinch or two into the court.
This is an offering to the temple, and is appropriated by the pigeons
and sparrows.
Only the northern third of the quadrangle is required for the religious
diabolical masquerade; the other two-thirds are left free for the poor
of Shigatse and its environs. There the crush is terrible, but now and
then lictors, as they may be called, armed with whips and rods, clear a
space. They strike right and left, and all the people bend their backs
under the blows, but their interference seems only to increase the
disorder. Among the pilgrims on the platforms tea is distributed gratis
by monks of low rank; they carry large brass-bound copper cans on the
right shoulder, from which they fill the wooden cups held out by their
guests. _Panem et circenses!_ The monks know how to treat their lambs.
What does it matter to them if they give a few yak-loads of brick tea
once or twice a year, when they live exclusively at the expense of the
people and from the Peter's pence which flow continuously from the bags
of pilgrims into the temple treasury?
[Illustration: 120. STREET IN TASHI-LUNPO.]
At length the lictors clear a space in the crowd below us, where a fire
is lighted. Two monks step forward and hold a large sheet of paper
horizontally over the fire at as great a height as possible; on this
paper is written down all the evil from which protection is desired
during the year now commencing, and all the affairs in which a triumph
is hoped for over the designs and influence of wicked demons. The paper
also represents the past year with all its sufferings and all its sins.
A lama walks up to the fire with a wand in one hand and a bowl in the
other. He recites some formulæ of incantation, performs all kinds of
mystical hocus pocus with his arms, and throws the contents of the bowl,
some inflammable stuff, into the flames, which blaze up brightly and
consume in a moment the paper, the passing year with its sins, and all
the power of the demons. All the spectators rise and break out into
prolonged shouts of rejoicing, for now evil is crushed and every one may
rest in peace. The last number of the day's programme was a general
dance of all the lamas in the courtyard.
Now the Tashi Lama rises and slowly retires from the scene of the
festival, followed by his retinue. After his departure the pilgrims
withdraw in perfect order, quietly and without crushing, and take their
way down to Shigatse in a black stream of humanity. When the last have
disappeared, we look for our horses, accompanied by our new friends.
The jugglery we had witnessed was in every respect brilliant, gorgeous,
and splendid, and it is easy to imagine the feelings of humility such a
performance must inspire in the mind of the simple pilgrim from the
desolate mountains or the peaceful valleys. While the original
signification of these dramatic masquerades and these mystic plays is
the exorcising and expelling of inimical demons, they are in the hands
of the clergy a means of retaining the credulous masses in the net of
the Church, and this is a condition of the existence both of the Church
and of the priests. Nothing imposes on ignorance so thoroughly as
fearful scenes from the demon world, and therefore devils and monsters
play a prominent part in the public masquerades of the monasteries. With
their help and by representations of the King of Death, Yama, and of
restless wandering souls vainly seeking new forms of existence in the
sequence of transmigrations, the monks terrify the multitude and render
them meek and subservient, and show many a poor sinner what obstacles
and what trials await him on the rough road to Nirvana through the
valley of the shadow of death.
On our way back we returned the visit of my friend Ma. His _yamen_ was
built in the usual Chinese style and was surrounded by a wall. I was
invited to take my place on the seat of honour beside a small table, on
which attentive servants placed tea, sweetmeats, and cigarettes. The
whole room was full of Chinamen, but Ma was as amiable as before.
Lobsang Tsering and Tsaktserkan were waiting in my garden. They had
brought a whole caravan of mules laden with _tsamba_, rice, meal, dried
fruit, and barley for our horses--supplies sufficient for our whole
party for a full month. They also handed me 46 silver _tengas_ (barely
20 shillings) wrapped in paper, with which, they believed, we should buy
meat, for the Tashi Lama must have no hand in anything which involved
the extinction of the vital spark. The envoys also said that His
Holiness expected me at nine o'clock the following morning, and that
they would come to fetch me. But I was not to tell Ma or any one else
that the Tashi Lama was going to receive me. For the rest, I had only to
say a word and all my wishes would be fulfilled. Later in the evening a
subordinate official presented himself with the information that no one
would fetch me; I was to be at the great portal at nine o'clock--for the
Chinese might become suspicious. At night I took out of Burroughs and
Wellcome's large medicine chest all the drugs which I thought we might
want, and we packed them in labelled bags. The chest itself, of
aluminium, and all its elegant tabloid boxes, bottles, cases, bandages,
and instruments were rubbed and polished up till they shone like silver,
and then wrapped in a large piece of yellow silk which Muhamed Isa had
picked up in the bazaar, for it was next day to be my friendship's
offering to the Panchen Rinpoche.
[Illustration: 121. THE LABRANG, THE PALACE OF THE TASHI LAMA, TO THE
RIGHT.
In the foreground, a part of the Court of Ceremonies.]